Cooking
Summer food post #182. Well, maybe not, but lately it's been hot and hot weather requires an appropriate menu. Tonight we had a salad nicoise. If I say "salad nicoise" you probably think of a salad with olives, potatoes, string beans, anchovies and tuna right? Well believe it or not, tuna is not authentic. I heard Jacques Pepin mention this once on TV and sure enough it's true.
According to the definitive source, the Escoffier Cook Book, the instructions are as follows: Take equal quantities of string beans, potato dice, and quartered tomatoes. Decorate with capers, small, pitted olives, and anchovy fillets. Season with oil and vinegar.
For my version of salad nicoise I cooked chinese long beans, boiled potatoes, quartered tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, sliced daikon radish and composed on the plate with olives, tuna, anchovies and dressed it all with aioli. As long as we're not being purists might as well go all out and make it to taste!
So somewhere along the way someone added tuna and it stuck. I'm actually thinking that with some slight variations you could make an Italian antipasto style nicoise salad or a chinese vegetable nicoise salad with a soy vinaigrette each as variations on the same theme. It's the combination of cold vegetables that makes it so refreshing and so perfect for summer anyway, not necessarily the tuna. So by all means substitute, subtract, you can even add lettuce or fresh herbs if you like. And I promise not to report you to the salad nicoise police.
- Sustainable Canned Tuna Taste Test
Canned tuna used to be a very inexpensive source of protein, but it isn’t necessarily anymore. The price varies depending upon where it comes from and how it’s caught. For the purposes of this review, I reviewed only sustainably caught white albacore...
- Bok Choy Salad Recipe
Recently I learned that bok choy is the number one vegetable in China. It seems to be the number one vegetable in my CSA box lately. It's a very healthy vegetable with a ton of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K plus and is even a good source of calcium...
- 20 Things To Do With Leftover Guacamole
Is there anything sadder than guacamole and no chips? And yet, it happens. Instead of stashing the guacamole in the refrigerator, this list of ideas should get the green out of the bowl and onto your plate! Just remember to season to taste before serving...
- Rnm:restaurant Review Closed
After all the festivities of November and December who wants to eat out in January? Well, I do! And you will too especially if you take advantage of Dine About Town a January promotion whereby you can eat in a whole roster of terrific restaurants for...
- Ravioli Salad Recipe
We have soup for dinner once every week or two. Soup is comforting and easy because you can make it in advance if you like. Healthy too. Now that the weather is warming up, salads also seem like a good choice for dinner, yet I'm always afraid they...
Cooking
Salad Nicoise Redux
Summer food post #182. Well, maybe not, but lately it's been hot and hot weather requires an appropriate menu. Tonight we had a salad nicoise. If I say "salad nicoise" you probably think of a salad with olives, potatoes, string beans, anchovies and tuna right? Well believe it or not, tuna is not authentic. I heard Jacques Pepin mention this once on TV and sure enough it's true.
According to the definitive source, the Escoffier Cook Book, the instructions are as follows: Take equal quantities of string beans, potato dice, and quartered tomatoes. Decorate with capers, small, pitted olives, and anchovy fillets. Season with oil and vinegar.
For my version of salad nicoise I cooked chinese long beans, boiled potatoes, quartered tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, sliced daikon radish and composed on the plate with olives, tuna, anchovies and dressed it all with aioli. As long as we're not being purists might as well go all out and make it to taste!
So somewhere along the way someone added tuna and it stuck. I'm actually thinking that with some slight variations you could make an Italian antipasto style nicoise salad or a chinese vegetable nicoise salad with a soy vinaigrette each as variations on the same theme. It's the combination of cold vegetables that makes it so refreshing and so perfect for summer anyway, not necessarily the tuna. So by all means substitute, subtract, you can even add lettuce or fresh herbs if you like. And I promise not to report you to the salad nicoise police.
- Sustainable Canned Tuna Taste Test
Canned tuna used to be a very inexpensive source of protein, but it isn’t necessarily anymore. The price varies depending upon where it comes from and how it’s caught. For the purposes of this review, I reviewed only sustainably caught white albacore...
- Bok Choy Salad Recipe
Recently I learned that bok choy is the number one vegetable in China. It seems to be the number one vegetable in my CSA box lately. It's a very healthy vegetable with a ton of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin K plus and is even a good source of calcium...
- 20 Things To Do With Leftover Guacamole
Is there anything sadder than guacamole and no chips? And yet, it happens. Instead of stashing the guacamole in the refrigerator, this list of ideas should get the green out of the bowl and onto your plate! Just remember to season to taste before serving...
- Rnm:restaurant Review Closed
After all the festivities of November and December who wants to eat out in January? Well, I do! And you will too especially if you take advantage of Dine About Town a January promotion whereby you can eat in a whole roster of terrific restaurants for...
- Ravioli Salad Recipe
We have soup for dinner once every week or two. Soup is comforting and easy because you can make it in advance if you like. Healthy too. Now that the weather is warming up, salads also seem like a good choice for dinner, yet I'm always afraid they...